University of California Survey

A survey of more than eight thousand doctoral student respondents was recently completed across the University of California system to better understand the attitudes of the current generation of students.  The survey found that 84 percent of women and 74 percent of men were somewhat or very concerned about the family friendliness of possible career paths.  The survey also found that although 45 percent of men and 39 percent of women surveyed indicated that they wanted to pursue careers as professors with research emphasis when they started their PhD programs, only 36 percent of men and 27 percent of women stated that this was their career goal at the time of the survey.  For women, the most common reasons cited for shifting their career goal was other life interests, issues related to children, and negative experience as a PhD student. For men, the most common reasons were negative experience as a PhD student, other life interests, and professional activity too time-consuming.  The article is available online at:

http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/academe/2009/JF/Feat/maso.htm